


Friendship.

by OddlyBookish



Series: The Aaron/Neil Brotp [2]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Aaron and Neil are bffs, Alternate Universe - No Exy (All For The Game), F/F, Friendship, Multi, Panic Attacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-18
Updated: 2018-11-18
Packaged: 2019-08-25 07:45:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16657078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OddlyBookish/pseuds/OddlyBookish
Summary: A continuation to Bad Mom Department where Neil and Aaron become best friends.





	Friendship.

"Boo you whore!" Katelyn yells as she throws some popcorn at the movie screen. Aaron snorts as he reaches over and takes a handful, glancing up at Neil who was laying with his head down and feet up, staring at the screen with a frown.

"This whole movie is confusing." He mutters as Aaron rolls his eyes at his redheaded best friend.

"Or you're too drunk to process shit." Neil squints before chuckling.

"True." It was Thanksgiving week, meaning there were no classes in session and almost everyone had gone back home for the week. Neil Hartford had stayed behind, claiming that a week-long trip to England was a waste of time. Aaron doubted it but didn't push.

Katelyn's family didn't have enough money to buy her a plane ticket and even if both Neil and Aaron had offered to pay she had refused.

So the three friends hung out in Neil's empty dorm the whole week, watching movies, ignoring their schoolwork and relishing in their new friendship.

Aaron Minyard didn't know Neil for long, but he had already become his best friend. Something had clicked after the night in Kate's dorm where the two shared stories about messed up parents, and Aaron found that Neil was easy to talk to.

Aaron also found out the extremes of Neil's fucked up childhood.

Long story short, Neil's dad was the head of a criminal organization that dabbled in everything. Drugs, child prostitution, guns and he specialized in torturing his victims with knives and cleavers earning him the name of The Butcher of Baltimore. His mom ran with him and a million dollars, shuffling him around under different aliases as they avoided being captured by his father. 

When he was fifteen they slipped up, getting captured and dragged back to Baltimore. His mother, Mary, had managed to call her brother Stewart before they got caught. It took hours for Neil's uncle to make it to Baltimore, hours in which Neil had to watch his mother be tortured to death until his father turned his attention to him.

His father didn't get far with him, burns on his upper thighs, slashes across his chest and arms, and a deep cut under his left eye, before his uncle showed up and killed his father. Neil was taken to England before he decided to major in Mathematics in the US.

In return Aaron told Neil about his fucked up childhood without saying too much about his twin, knowing Andrew wouldn't appreciate him sharing so many things with someone Drew considered a stranger. 

Tilda Minyard had twins and gave them both up, only returning in her guilt to take one back. That was Aaron. Of course, Aaron never knew this, nope, not until his thirteenth birthday, when he was high as a kite and stumbling around the grocery store with five dollars in his pocket and a serious case of nausea.

He bumped right into Office Derek Higgins, who at the time was fostering his brother Andrew with his therapist wife Besty Dobson-Higgins. Higgins was pissed, finding who he believed to be his foster son high in a grocery store when he was supposed to be helping his foster mom cook dinner.

So Higgins dragged the kid home, ready to break the news to his wife about their son's behavior only to be stumped he found Andrew stirring a pot of chili with Betsy. Aaron puked all over the rug at the sight of his twin and Derek Higgins was left to call Andrew's caseworker in confusion.

Tilda's custody was ripped away from her, and when Aaron was forced into juvenile rehab, Tilda died of an overdose. Aaron's uncle and aunt tried to file for custody of the twins, but once it was discovered that they had sent their son out of the country to a conversion camp both of the twins were adopted by Betsy and Derek Higgins. Their cousin Nicholas had flown in from Germany to meet Andrew and make sure everything was okay before flying back out to continue his boarding school program.

"We should eat." Neil mutters from the couch a few moments later. 

"Is that all you think about? Food?" Katelyn asks. Neils nods and flips over, landing on the floor with a huff before turning towards the couple.

"I'm a growing boy." He states. Aaron scoffs earning him a middle finger in response as Kate pauses the movie while standing to stretch.

"Well we should go before all the good places close." Katelyn states. Aaron nods in agreement, the nearby places always closed early on Sunday and stands while Neil leans forward cracking his spine before cracking his neck causing Katelyn to shiver while Aaron threw a pillow.

"Stop that creepy shit and let's go." Neil chuckles but ignores his friend as he cracks his fingers one by one, knowing it would only piss Aaron off even more.

"And try not to puke up any Vodka on the way there." Aaron states as he hauls his friend up, pretending to be frustrated with the annoying redhead, yet only mildly amused with his friends' antics.

A few days later he's knocking on Neil's door, a bag of Thai food in hand waiting for his friend to open the door. After a few seconds of no answer, Aaron tries again, happy that it was the day before Thanksgiving and the campus was still empty.

"Neil! Open up come on, the food will get cold." Aaron calls as he knocks loudly. Aaron can't hear anything from the dorm, even with the thin walls of the place, there were no sounds from the inside.

Aaron curses, thinking that maybe Neil had forgotten about their plans for Aaron to teach Neil how to play video games when he hears a crash from inside the dorm.

"Neil!" He yells knowing it would be no one else.

"Damn it Neil open the door!" He shouts knowing that only Neil was on campus during the break. After a few seconds of no answer, Aaron grows frustrated, shaking the doorknob multiple times before slamming his body into the door knowing firsthand how easy it was to break into shitty dorm rooms.

He drops the bag when he spots Neil, breathing heavily as he sits on the floor by the kitchen counter. He rushes over, trying to avoid the broken glass that surrounded Neil as he crouches over his best friend.

"Neil, hey breathe for me alright?" Neil doesn't respond so Aaron grips his face forcing him to look up instead of his shaking bleeding hands.

"Breathe come on, in and out Neil, just follow after me." Neil says nothing but his eyes seem to focus better on Aaron's form.

Neil lets out a shaky breath, gripping Aaron's wrist and Aaron knows that Neil finds his pulse point when Neil sucks in a breath and let's it out slowly. Neil swallows but his breathing evens out and his shoulders slump quickly. Aaron says nothing but guides Neil's head towards his shoulder, knowing from both Katelyn and his brother how tiring panic attacks could be.

"Our last Thanksgiving together was a bitch." Neil mutters after a few seconds of silence.

"Neil you don-"

"It's not the smartest thing to be alone on Holidays, I heard you but when I tried to stand I dropped the plate and then I was back there again, broken wrist and everything." Aaron silently adds another dash to Neil's shitty childhood backstories but otherwise stays silent.

"Hartford you trying to steal my boyfriend?" He hears Kate asks from the dorm room door, he turns towards her, smiling in reassurance when he sees the worry on her face.

"Well he's quite a catch." Neil jokes before pulling back from Aaron.

"Guess the food's fucked." Neil mutters. Kate nods as she glances down at the puddle of curry by the front door.

"We can clean up and then go for some burgers, fatty foods help." Kate states. The group nods before Aaron helps his friend off the floor, pushing him to Kate so she could help him clean up while he cleans the glass up in the kitchen.

The three of the end up in a burger joint close by, it was luckily empty and pretty quiet, nothing that could possibly cause Neil to panic.

"You could come over to my Thanksgiving tomorrow." Aaron offers his friend, ignoring the look Katelyn shot him.

"Just my parents, brother and me. Nicky wasn't able to fly over for Thanksgiving but he'll be down for Christmas." Aaron states Neil frowns and shakes his head.

"I haven't met any of your family, it'd be rude to drop in on their Thanksgiving." Neil states.

"Trust me Betsy and Derek wouldn't mind, Drew doesn't give a shit about much, it'll be fine." Aaron states, trying to reassure himself as well.

"Or you can join me? Marissa, Karen, and Ricky won't be spending Thanksgiving with their families and they get home tonight from their road trip." Katelyn states. Neil hesitates but nods smiling at Katelyn as the waitress brings their food over.

"Maybe then you can finally tell Marissa you aren't interested." Aaron states as he takes a fry from his plate.

"I've tried." Neil retorts before frowning as he steals a fry from Aaron and dunks it into his vanilla milkshake.

"Neil, love, telling her 'I'm busy.', isn't much of a no, it's a not now." Katelyn states with an innocent smile.

"Yeah, well as long as you don't pull what you did on Amy you'll be okay." Aaron reminds his red-headed friend. Neil drops his head and runs a hand through his hair.

"She kept touching me." Neil defends himself as Aaron chuckles.

"Uh huh and the 'Never touch me with your dirty midget fingers again.', sure got the message across." Katelyn laughs before looking at Neil who was blushing with embarrassment.

"You didn't." She comments with a laugh as he rolls his eyes.

"I don't swing, you guys know that." Neil mutters before stuffing some more of Aaron's fries into his mouth.

"We do, doesn't mean the rest of the world does." Aaron mutters as he pushes his plate of fries towards Neil.

"Maybe you need to get Asexual tattoed across your forehead." Kate jokes causing Neil to roll his eyes.

"I've told you it's not like that, you guys both know it." 

"Oh yes, the French guy that lives with your uncle." Neil throws the milkshake fry at Aaron before continuing to eat his burger, ignoring Aaron's chuckle.

"Question, does he moan with an accent?" Both Neil and Aaron groan at Katelyn's question while she laughs, dodging both fries that were thrown her way.

"I'm just asking!"


End file.
